Sweet Byzantine Dreams For You

First of all, THIS

I am here to haunt your dreams. 

It is with a huge boner that I present this 13th Century binding in the Byzantine style. Take a good look at those endbands. Seriously. And the way the leather is folded around the head and tail edges of the boards? Amazing.

So we can all agree that this binding makes the short list of hottest binds of all time. Also I imagine I am not the only person who wants to learn how to do this. Guess what I found?

THIS 

I plan to follow these instructions and then review or amend them as needed. I can see that there are handwritten notes in the margins but I have a hard time reading them. Most written instructions can use a little tweaking to make them clearer - and these ones are not clear to me without trying the project.

I have yet to find a tutorial on Greek endbands, which is apparently the style used here. Help a sister out if you find one!

Finally, THIS totally beautiful adaptation of Byzantine binding created by Perkolator Press.

Image Property of Perkolator Press 

Notice the use of straight up white thread for the endbands, letting the stitching take center stage. Some of the components of these endbands are similar to the first book, but there are some interesting differences.

For one thing, the two cores (the cord or rolled paper that thread is wrapped around to create the bands) used by Perkolator Press appear to be the same size. The 13th Century book uses cores of two different sizes.

Another difference is in the appearance of beading along the endbands. No, this has nothing to do with seed beads or other beads in the strict sense. Beading refers to an extra row of stitches in addition to the core or cores used to create endbands. This extra row is created by the repeating pattern of crossing the threads over each other as they are moved forward into different signatures of the book. There are methods that have no beading at all, as well as beads appearing on the front of the work (front beading = in front of the core) or on the back of the work (back beading = behind the core), depending on whether the needle is inserted first from the foreedge or the spine of the work.  Perkolator's endbands also have no front bead - meaning there either is no bead here or the stitches are back beaded. Beading is visible in the 13th Century book as the last row of stitches on the left of the bookspine - this is in front of the core, so it is front beaded. The center and far right rows of stitches are wrapped around cores.

Sweet dreams,
xo
Laura

Salutations and Endband Smut

 Do let's get started, shall we? I make books. Actually I make a lot of stuff but lately the focus has been on books. By lately I mean the least few years, but who is counting. When it comes to learning a craft well, it often takes far more than a few years. I am totally self-taught, which is not as awesome as it sounds. Although, did you ever notice that bookbinding workshops tend to be hundreds of dollars? Kind of a turn-off. I tend to rely on internet tutorials and books for reference and to learn new techniques. I will be sharing and reviewing a lot of these references for you.

Which leads me to the following complaint: where is a good tutorial on French endbands, ughhhh?Throw me a bone, or at least a rolled paper cone. That would be funny if you were also trying to learn French endbands. The photo above is an example of my latest attempt at French -style endbands with a double roll and front beading. The process for this is a modification of simple endbands but made on rolled paper cores rather than cord. The upside is that the threads move very cleanly along the core when you are wrapping, leading to a smooth finish. The downside is that paper lacks the flexibility of cords and therefore the endbands don't conform as well to the curvature of the book spine when it is closed. I still like how they look, but I want to learn more. Good old trial and error, here I come. Unless I do end up finding a good resource. You will be the first to know!

These pictures are of my latest book, available here https://www.etsy.com/listing/109725651/skeleton-hands-book-hardcover-leather